FOUR METHODS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

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FOUR METHODS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

• By ??? ??
• 03?

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Introduction

• As an interdisciplinary science, the field of
  applied linguistics has been constantly
  influenced by theoretical trends in linguistics,
  psychology, and sociology.
• Hence, this influence is reflected in the various
  methods and approaches in second and foreign
  language teaching in history.

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A Retrospective of Foreign Language Teaching
Methodology

• 1st period the period of Classical language
  teaching (before 1880) Grammar- Translation
  Method
• 2nd period the beginning of Modern
• Language Teaching (from 1880 to the 1st world
  war) Direct method
• 3rd period the Development of Modern Language
  Teaching (from the first world war to 70)
  Audio-lingual Method
• 4th period the intensification of Modern
  Language Teaching (after 70) Communicative
  Approach

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Grammar-Translation Method
Background Time period until late 19th
century Under the influence of the teaching of
Latin and Greek FL as cultural
refinement.Language is viewed as a set of
knowledge, just like physics, chemistry,
mathematics, etc.
Theoretical Foundation
Rationalism Prescriptivism
Representative Greco-Latin Model of Grammar
German scholar Karl Ploz (late 1800s)was
influential
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Grammar-Translation Method

• Approaches
• Accuracy emphasized
• Grammar taught deductively
• Native language-----medium of instruction

Central Issue Why to teach?
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The Direct Method

• Background
• Late 19th-early 20th century, practical
  needs and interests for modern languages calls
  for reform GT was found to be inadequate for
  teaching living languages, so DM was developed
  which emphasized the primacy of speech.
• the founding of IPA in 1886,

Theoretical Foundation
Pragmatism Descriptivism
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The Direct method

• Principles Methods
• Begin with spoken language
• Inductive teaching of grammar
• Classroom instruction conducted in mother tongue
• Factual texts
• Systematic oral training and exercise
• Exposure to living speech

Central issue What to teach?
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The Audio-lingual Method(1940s-1970s)
Social Background Developed in the US during
WWII, as a need for people to learn foreign
languages rapidly for military purposes. on the
one hand, and growing body of researches on
foreign langrage teaching on the other.
Theoretical Foundation Exciting new ideas about
language and learning Structuralism as
chemistry, break sentences up into phrases,
words, sounds, etc. Language is viewed as a set
of skills, such as swimming, driving, riding a
bike, etc. . Behaviorism Stimulus Response

• Proponents
• Fries, Skinner, Bloomfield, N. Brooks

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The Audio-lingual Method
Principles and methods
FL as a process of habit formation
Emphasizes speaking and listening before reading
and writing
Uses dialogues and drills
Discourages use of the mother tongue in the
classroom
Often make use of contrastive analysis
Central issues How to teach?
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The Communicative Approach
Principles and methods
Teaching language as communication
Appropriateness rather than acceptability
Content not form is emphasized

• Learner factors
• Authenticity

Central Issue Whom to teach?
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Characteristics of the Communicative Approach
1. Student-centered.
2. Teacher acts as an advisor, organizer,
facilitator, guide, monitor, evaluator, etc. in
class.
3. The use rather than the usage of English is
stressed
4. Students learn to communicate by communicating
through truly communicative activities three
features information/opinion gap, choice, and
feedback

• 5. The use of authentic materials. It is
  considered desirable to give students an
  opportunity to develop strategies for
  understanding language as it is actually used by
  native speakers.

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Some Famous models of Communicative Approach
Canale and Swain Model Bachman Model Li Xiaoju
Model
Proponent of CLT in China Work Communicative
English for Chinese Learners Recently the
course of CECL is graded as an excellent course
by the Chinese Educational Ministry.
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What the class will be like when the teacher
uses different method?
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Experiencing the four methods

• Four elementary level adult English classes we
  make up at a university in China
• Teaching methods
• Grammar-Translation Method
• Direct Method
• Audio-Lingual Method
• Communicative Approach
• Number of students 30
• Teaching content a short funny English story
• in about 40 words about watching TV at home.

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Experiencing the four methods

• A little funny story Is Jim Clever?
• One day, Jim and his brother were watching TV.
  Suddenly Jim turned off the TV. Why do you turn
  it off? asked his brother. I want to drink
  water and I dont want to miss the TV program.
  replied Jim.

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Grammar-Translation Method

• The teacher teaches some new words first, eg,
  watch, miss, program
• then goes through the whole passage sentence by
  sentence, and translates them into Chinese
• meanwhile explains some key grammatical points in
  the passage, such as past continuous tense, the
  phrases turn off and turn on
• and asks the students to do some exercises about
  them.
• Alternative
• Some students are called on to read a few lines
  from the passage. After each has finished
  reading, s/he is asked to translate into Chinese
  the few lines he has just read.
• When the reading and translating are finished,
  the teacher may respond to the questions if any
  raised by the students in Chinese, then move to
  the comprehension and vocabulary exercises about
  the story.

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Direct Method

• No translation, meaning is directly connected
  with the target language.

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Direct Method

• At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher puts
  up the picture of the story on the blackboard
  first,

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Then , s/he calls on the students one by one and
read a sentence from the reading passage. The
teacher may then point to the part of the picture
the sentence describes after each student has
read his sentence.
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Direct Method

• At last, comes the questions and answers session
  in the target language, and the teacher tries
  her/his best to answer the students questions
  in English by gestures, facial expressions,
  drawings on the blackboard, and giving examples
  and relating the explanations to the students
  own life.

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Audio-Lingual Method

• When the class begins, the teacher presents and
  acts out the new story and the short dialogue in
  the story in English.
• The students are expected to pay attention to the
  new text and try to understand the meaning of it
  and learn the whole text by heart.
• After the teacher makes sure that the students
  can understand the text, s/he has the whole class
  repeat each of the lines of the text after
  his/her model.
• Then the teacher and students take turns to do
  the lines of the characters in the story to
  further get their mouth around the words. Then
  other language drills are followed to help the
  students to grasp the key language points or
  sentence patterns. Finally, the students are
  asked to role play the dialogue in the story in
  class with half of the class do the part of one
  speaker and the other half does the role of the
  other speaker.

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Communicative Approach

• The teacher may first give the students some key
  words in the story and asks them to predict the
  content of the story.
• The teacher may also present the first part of
  the story and ask the students to guess the end
  of the story.
• The teacher can design a role-play based on the
  story, ask the students to work in pairs and play
  the roles of the speakers in the story and
  present their play in class.
• The teacher can also ask the students to have a
  debate contest on the impact of TV on Children in
  two teams or a speech contest on the topic of My
  Favorite TV Program or TV and Our life to provide
  the students as many chances as possible to use
  the English they learned to express their ideas
  and communicate with others.

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An analysis of the activities used in the class
on the basis of CLT characteristics

• 1. Student-centered.
• 2. Teacher acts as an advisor, organizer,
  facilitator, guide, monitor, evaluator, etc. in
  class.
• 3. The use rather than the usage of English is
  stressed.
• 4. Students learn to communicate by communicating
  through truly communicative activities
  role-play, readers theatre, chained story, etc.
  
• 5. The use of a semi-authentic material. The
  students are given an opportunity to develop
  strategies for understanding language as it is
  actually used by native speakers.

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In short,

• A truly communicative English class!

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Concluding remarks

• From the above discussions we can infer that the
  main domain of applied linguistics the study of
  second and foreign language learning and teaching
  is closely related to the social conditions, the
  development of various other disciplines
  psychology, sociology, philosophy, etc., above
  all, the better understanding of the knowledge
  and role of language in our life.

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Questions for thought

• 1. What foreign language, especially English
  language learning and teaching method is most
  effective and appropriate in China now?
• 2. What contributions the practice of second and
  foreign language learning and teaching can make
  to the further exploration of the marvelous scope
  of linguistics?

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References

• Gui Shichun. 2001. Applied Linguistics Course
  handout.
• Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 1985.
• Ur, Penny. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching
  Pratice and Theory, Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press.
• Zhengchao. 2003. Introduction to Linguistics and
  Applied Linguistics course handout.
• ???.????????????.?????????,1988.
• ???. ??????. ???????????,2000.
• ??. ????365?. ????????,2002.

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Thank you for your attention.
good-bye!